AUSTRALIANS AT WAR

AUSTRALIANS AT WAR
THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY is a compelling factual history of neoconservatism and its influence on US Foreign Policy in the Middle East during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Click on image above for details.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

ISRAEL’S HISTORY OF CONCOCTED WARS OF EXPANSIONISM: PREPARING FOR THE FINAL CONFRONTATION.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that Israel is preparing itself in a big way for war. Recent reports suggest that this war will be against Hamas, Hizbollah and Syria. Naturally, al Qaeda’s name has also been thrown in for good measure. Significantly, Iran hasn’t been mentioned in terms of war directly between Israel and Iran, at least not in the same context as a war against Hamas, Hizbollah and Syria, though the Israeli Air Force has been training hard separately from Israeli ground and naval forces for long range missions.

This has lead to speculation that a joint Israel/US operation is in the offing, hence the long range air force training, while the war against Hamas, Hizbollah and Syria will ostensibly be what they will term as a ‘defensive’ war as they respond to Hamas, Hizbollah and Syrian attacks that are in fact retaliatory after the Israeli/US attack on Iran – in short; planned escalation to achieve an end.

Ilan Pappe wrote:

“Clashes with Palestinian militias provided the perfect context and pretext for implementing the ideological vision of an ethnically cleansed Palestine. The Zionist policy was first based on retaliation against Palestinian attacks in February 1947, and it transformed into an initiative to ethnically cleanse the country as a whole in March 1948”. (1)

Over the last sixty odd years, nothing at all has changed! The Zionists still attack the Arab peoples based on what they tell the world is a ‘defensive retaliation’. The attacks on both the Gaza and Lebanon in June and August 2006 were based on three of their soldiers being captured yet it is abundantly clear that these attacks on the Gazan people and the people of Lebanon, particularly in the south, were meticulously planned long before their soldiers were captured. According to World Tribune piece the Israelis are simply waiting for the next casus belli to make their move: “Israeli military intelligence has projected that a major attack could come from any of five adversaries in the Middle East. Officials said such a strike could spark a war as early as July 2007.”

Naturally, if there is no casus belli forthcoming then one could always rely on the Zionists to concoct one. The difference this time is that this war really could be the war to end all wars!


ENDNOTE
(1) Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. (Oxford: Oneworld Publications Ltd., 2007.) p. xii.

Sunday, June 24, 2007

AFTERMATH OF THE TIM BLAIR EXERCISE

A few have suggested that my deletion of some posts (usually theirs) and not others are a form of censorship. Let me put these people’s minds to rest; I never censor any posts.

However, when someone comes to my blog, drops his daks and craps on the floor I will, with one click of the mouse button, clear up the mess before anyone comes along and accidentally puts their foot in it thereby spreading it around the place.

Occasionally I’ll leave some garbage out to decompose naturally. For example, some extreme right-wing garbage will be left out for a while so that their stupidity can get full exposure. Eventually I’ll get around to clearing these little messes up as well. Occasionally I instantly clean up some messes because they are of no value whatsoever, or sometimes because I simply feel like it. Others get left a bit because I’ve been busy doing other things and haven’t noticed the mess yet.

Some have argued that this is denial of free speech. If it were ‘speech’ that was being left here then it would stay here but unfortunately what these people claim is ‘speech’ is actually crap and it needs clearing up just as one would have to clear up after a puppy dog with an upset tum that didn’t quite make it to the dirt box in time. Delusional liars and assorted deceivers fall into that category.

Others have suggested that as an academic I should be more respectful and tolerant of those with opinions that differ from mine.

Rubbish!

First off, just because I’m doing a PhD doesn’t make me an academic. I’m doing a PhD because I can, that’s all. I’m coming up to 60 so I can assure you it’s not a career move! I have other degrees, most of which were done for the fun of learning. I am no longer an academic! And once this degree is finished I’ll move on and do maybe do another one. Second, let me make it quite clear that I have absolutely no problem at all in calling the right-wing all the names under the sun and making ad hominen attacks upon them. I have no time whatsoever for racists of any description, warmongers, liars and deceivers, invaders and pillagers, or those that support them.

Why did I have a spray at Tim Blair? Simple; because he is a warmongering fascist and racist that supports liars and deceivers, invaders and pillagers, simple as that.

All of the dirty little messes left behind will be cleaned up soon – including the ones that result from this post!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

TIM BLAIR, AUSTRALIAN ANTI-ISLAM RACIST JOURNALIST AND BLOGGER, EXPOSED ON AUSTRALIA’S MAINSTREAM ABC TV!

Tim Blair, Australian extreme right-wing fascist/racist commentator, blogger, conspiracy theorist (he actually believes the US government’s conspiracy theory!) and host to equally extreme right-wing warmongers, Islamaphobes, right-wing Israeli Loony Lobbyists, right-wing Zionist supporters, and other assorted liars, deceivers and thugs, in short, the ugly face of anti-Islamic right-wing extremism in Australia, got short thrift on national TV earlier this week when ABCs Media Watch exposed the Tim Blair site for what it is – a disgusting example of the extreme right-wing racism that prevails in Australia.

Tim Blair’s response to Media Watch’s expose of the disgusting racist comments that Blair actively encourages and supports at his hate site was predictable. He snivels when he finds out that other editors were contacted by Media Watch’s editor, Tim Palmer, but he wasn’t, and then goes on to have a blast at Palmer about some incident in 2002 when Palmer caught Blair out in a deceit and threatened to sue. Blair conceded and apologised; fear of a big legal bill was his pathetic excuse.

The usual bunch of loony racist shills that roost at Blair’s Lair came out in support; Paco, El Cid who was featured in the Media Watch piece, and a small menagerie of other regulars including the proven liar, pseudo-intellectual and wannabe academic Dylan Kissane. The comments of some of these lunatics need to be seen to be believed.

The more often these people are exposed for what they really are on the mainstream media TV the better.


AND JUST TO PROVE THE POINT…

Since this piece has been posted, the flock of right-wing loonies that normally roost in contented flocks at Tim Blair’s hate site, fly off like a bunch of captive homing pigeons released for a little exercise to come to this site to deposit their droppings before heading back to their roost for a bit of self satisfied gloating.

Just take a look at the comments to see what I mean.

So predictable.

It seems that some of those commenting are labouring under the illusion that racism is just about blood and biology; it isn’t. There is also another racism, one that is even more prevalent than that of blood and biology and that is the racism of religion and culture. It's the kind of racism that most of those that have commented here indulge in.


IT SEEMS SOME ON THE RIGHT ARE STILL CONFUSED ABOUT 'RACISM'...

For the really dumb among the right-wing that either can’t cope with the idea that they are racist or are simply too thick to comprehend the concept of the new racism of religion and culture content only to quote definitions from some ancient dictionary, give this site a whirl or page 39, para. 2, of this UK report – you may actually learn something!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

IS THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF THE GAZA ABOUT TO BEGIN?

The Gaza Strip has now been almost completely isolated since Hamas decisively won its battle to wrestle control from Fatah on the strip. While the world is being told by the western mainstream media the big lie about the ‘Hamas coup’ in the Gaza, ignoring entirely the fact that it was Hamas that won the Palestinian elections of January 2006, elements of the Israeli government are already pushing for the transfer of the ordinary Gazan people to the West Bank under the guise of calling them refugees. The Israeli Justice Minister, Daniel Friedmann, is already calling for the Israeli government to allow Gazan residents to flee to the West Bank.

Life in the Gaza was bad enough before the fighting between Fatah and Hamas got under way with the help of the Israelis, the Saudis and Elliot Abrams in the Bush administration but now it is likely to get worse as they bunker down in readiness for the expected Israeli invasion as they go after Hamas. Already the Israelis are cutting off fuel supplies and the Fatah-dominated government in the West Bank are unlikely to be releasing any funds that are now to be released to them by the Israelis, to Hamas in the Gaza.

Clearing away the rhetoric and propaganda of how Hamas has unexpectedly ‘won’ the battle in the Gaza in a ‘coup’ and, as a result, has ‘created another headache for Israel’, the geo-political reality is that Hamas has played directly into the hands of the Israelis to the point where it would be a fairly safe bet to assume that Fatah in the Gaza was ‘sacrificed’ in order to isolate Hamas so that the process of both destroying Hamas and the transfer of the Gazan people can begin with the ultimate goal of Israel annexing the Gaza after it had been ‘abandoned’ by its people.

The world needs to act and act now before disaster strikes the Palestinian people of the Gaza.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

GAZA FIGHTING PART OF ISRAELI PLAN TO ACCELERATE ETHNIC CLEANSING?

The Western media would have us believe that the fighting in the Gaza between Fatah and Hamas is merely a battle for control of the Gaza; and, at a very superficial level, there is some truth in this. However, there are aspects of the fighting which the mainstream media are not telling us in an effort to portray the fighting as something that has escalated solely because of differences between Fatah and Hamas domestic politics.

Such a notion could not be further from the truth.

In January 2006 Hamas became the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people having won 76 out of the 132 seats available, a clear overall majority which in any normal democratic system would have allowed them to govern in their own right. However, despite this, the Israelis and the US refused to accept them as the legitimate government of the Palestinians and have made every effort to diminish the ability of Hamas to govern by cutting off funds and arresting their leaders.

In March of this year, Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah President, appointed the corrupt Gaza warlord, Mohammad Dahlan, to head Fatah security. Recently, Elliot Abrams, the extreme right-wing neoconservative Deputy National Security Advisor and pro-Zionist Israeli expansionist, has been supplying arms and money to Dahlan with which to fight Hamas. It now seems that the money and the arms have not been well spent; Hamas now dominate in the Gaza after several weeks of sporadic fighting.

Hamas is an organisation dedicated to restoring Palestinian sovereignty; an anathema to the right-wing Zionists who seek to expand Israel into the West Bank, the Gaza and southern Lebanon, and to maintain their hold on the Golan Heights.

It is the Israeli’s aim to tighten their grip on the Gaza to such an extent that Palestinians will want to leave. Of course, once the Gaza has been laid waste by continued attacks and aggression from the IDF and the continued fighting between Hamas and Fatah fighters who are using the Gaza as a battleground, the Israelis will move back in claiming that the Gaza has been all but abandoned. The Gazan Palestinians are already applying to leave to head off to wherever they can away from the fighting, the grinding poverty and daily deterioration of life generally in the Gaza.

This is nothing less than ethnic cleansing. Once completed in the Gaza, the West Bank will have the screws that are already making life intolerable there tightened even further.

Monday, June 11, 2007

AN ATTACK ON IRAN VIA THE BACK DOOR? BUSH AND RICE MIGHT JUST GO ALONG WITH THAT!

In their continued efforts to wedge the Sunni and Shia peoples in the Middle East (bearing in mind that Sunnis are by far the largest Muslim group in the Middle East generally) the Americans have decided to take a punt and are now planning to arm Sunni insurgent groups in Iraq (where Sunnis are a minority group) under the guise of the Sunnis combating ‘al Qaeda in Iraq’.

The reality is that there is no ‘al Qaeda’ in Iraq per se (nor, indeed, hardly anywhere else). There used to be an ‘al Qaeda’ years ago in Afghanistan and there are still remnants of it scattered throughout Afghanistan and Pakistan today, but the label ‘al Qaeda’ today has essentially been hijacked by the US and their allies in order to perpetuate the myth of a monolithic and highly organised extremist pan Islamic global movement out to take over the world and convert it to hard-line Islam; great for propaganda purposes and the rhetoric of Western leaders but the accusations are completely baseless and founded entirely on the imagination of assorted neoconservative think tanks and propagandists and totally lacking any actual evidence.

Whereas the Sunnis of Iraq in the past were the most aggrieved by the invasion of their country by the US and their allies and, indeed, did lead the insurgency in attempting to rid their nation of the invader, the Shiites are now also expressing their displeasure at the prospect of having the US and their allies continuing what is looking like a long-term occupation by the US. As a result of this Shiites are now increasingly joining the insurgency against the US and their allies and, of course, they are doing this with the help of the Iranians (whose population, like Iraq, is mostly Shiite).

Most of the bodies that have been turning up all over Iraq showing signs of having been tortured and then executed are not as a result of secular tit-for-tat killings as the western media has portrayed, but as a result of insurgents having been rounded up by covert Iraqi police and army units acting under the auspices of American commanders. While many are actually insurgents there have also been many men of military age that have innocently been caught in the round-ups and have suffered the same fate.

In the bigger picture, the real enemy of the US (and Israel) is Iran and it is for this reason that the US are trying to wedge the two groups, the Sunni and the Shia. Their thinking is that if they can stir up the Shia of Iraq enough to begin making overt, as against the current covert, connections with Iran then this will provide casus belli for the US to attack Iran under cover of stopping Iranian intervention in Iraq as against halting Iran’s so-called nuclear weapons ambitions. In other words, war against Iran would be seen simply as an extension of their efforts to keep a lid on Iraq rather than as a separate war of aggression against Iran on top of the continuing war in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan, something the American people will absolutely not tolerate.

Action against Iran, however, if presented to the American people as efforts to protect American troops in Iraq, might be a little more acceptable to the American people – or so some in and close to the administration hopes. It’s certainly the road that Sen. Joe Lieberman would like to see the US take and it’s a view that Dick Cheney would be likely to support. But, and this is what’s really frightening, it’s also a perspective that George W. Bush and Condoleeza Rice, both of whom lean more toward a diplomatic solution to the ‘Iran crisis’ may also consider favourably.

As always, however, the neocons dream up these scenarios but they never seem to actually play out when they try to put them into practice. This present scheme is also due to fail simply because the neocons have failed to realise that, while there is some, but now diminishing, animosity between the two groups in Iraq, their animosity toward the US and their allies is far, far greater and the US could well find that they’ve bitten off far more than they are able to chew if they attack Iran for any reason.

Saturday, June 09, 2007

THE NEOCONS ARE ALREADY DITCHING BUSH – HIS FAILURE TO PARDON LIBBY CLINCHES IT

William Kristol, writing in the neocon comic ‘The Weekly Standard’, has told readers:
“So much for loyalty, or decency, or courage. For President Bush, loyalty is apparently a one way street; decency is something he's for as long as he doesn't have to take any risks in its behalf; and courage--well, that's nowhere to be seen. Many of us used to respect President Bush. Can one respect him still?”

Bush’s days are numbered but there are still a few to go before he goes. America is still well over a year away before they are rid of him but, or at least so it seems, the neocons are already preparing the way for the candidate they are giving their support to, John McCain.

Of course, the President the neocons would really like to have is Dick Cheney but, short of something nasty happening to Bush, that is unlikely to happen. The problem for the neocons is that there are a lot of hoops to go through before their man gets to the top – not least of which is, first, getting him up as the Republican candidate and, second, winning the 2008 Presidential election. If he, or the any Republican candidate for that matter, loses then the neocons are going to be back out in the political wilderness where they were after the demise of the Reagan/Bush snr. era when Clinton got elected.

Naturally, a lot can happen in a year but, from where everyone is sitting at the moment, the President and the Republican Party are pretty much on the American people’s collective nose right now and the chances of a Republican President getting elected next time round looks fairly remote.

One couldn’t put it past the ultra-hawks not to try and arrange some way of getting Cheney in considering the circumstances. Just prior to the last Presidential election the idea was mooted that there may be some ‘October Surprise’ that would ensure that either Bush or Cheney retained power. One scenario was a massive ‘terrorist attack’ that would guarantee a Bush re-election while another scenario suggested that Bush may be ‘assassinated’ by some deranged lone gunman which would give Cheney the Presidency who would immediately suspend the constitution on the basis of ‘national security’ effectively giving himself dictatorial powers. As it turned out, there was instead a ‘November Surprise’ where Bush was returned by virtue of massive voter fraud at the election – just as he was ‘voted-in’ in the first place in 2000. Of course, there could be a massive ‘November Surprise’ in the 2008 Presidential election but its going to be very difficult to repeat that again if, going into the election, the opinion polls are about where they are now. It’ll be more than just a bit suspect if a Republican candidate gets up under those circumstances.

This brings us back to another shot at the ‘October Surprise’ scenario; except it doesn’t necessarily have to be in October 2008, it could be any time between now and then.

Whatever happens, it’s quite clear that the neocons have had it with Bush. And there really is only Cheney left standing as far as the neocons are concerned at this moment of time. A worry!

Friday, June 08, 2007

WHAT YOU MISSED AT WEBDIARY

For those who occasionally visit here from Webdiary (and elsewhere) and are wondering what David Roffey, the new head honcho there, refused to publish in response to yet another load of rhetoric and propaganda from Chris Parsons, here it is in its entirety:


GEO-POLITICAL REALITY VERSUS RHETORIC AND PROPAGANDA

I wonder how the Iranian President is going to ‘wipe Israeli off the map’ C. Parsons.
You see, the geo-political reality is, and this is with total disregard to the rhetoric and propaganda (R&P) of either side, Iran is posturing the way it does because it feels threatened by the US and to a lesser extent Israel. Reality: Bush has called Iraq, Iran and N. Korea an ‘Axis of Evil’. Reality: Iran then witnesses Bush change regime in Iraq, indeed, ‘wipe the Iraqi regime from the map’ (to us a metaphor you like so much in your R&P, for that is all it is).
Reality: The right-wing Zionists of Israel, supported by the neoconservatives in the US who wield influence in the Republican Party and the Bush administration, wish to create a Greater Israel that includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and even possibly the south of Lebanon up to the Litani River (as they attempted to do last year).
Reality: the only nation stopping the right-wing Zionists achieving its ambitions of a Greater Israel is Iran. How? Iran supports Hizbollah that defends south Lebanon from the Israelis and also supports Hamas as they resist Israeli aggression in the occupied territories. Iran also assists Syria who also supports Hizbollah and Hamas. How to redress this problem? Easy. Get the US to get rid of the Iranian threat to Israeli aspirations. How? Wind up the R&P accusing Iran of wanting to ‘wipe Israel of the map’ with its non-existent ‘nuclear weapons’. Once the present Iranian ‘regime’ is out the way and replaced with a nice submissive and compliant government acceptable to the US and Israel, Syria will quickly capitulate and, so it is then hoped, Hizbollah and Hamas resistance will then collapse leaving the right-wing Zionists a free hand to realise its dream of a Greater Israel.
Reality: All the chatter about what Ahmadinejad has and hasn’t said is just R&P. Even if he said ‘wipe Israel of the map’ there is no means by which he could do that. Despite all the R&P about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons the reality is; Iran doesn’t have any. A further reality is, despite the R&P, is that there is no evidence of Iran seeking nuclear weapons. It’s all just R&P just like Bush’s R&P leading up to the invasion and plundering of Iraq which has left some 600,000-700,000 people dead, mostly killed by the US and their allies (despite the R&P) and another 4 million displaced and seeking refuge because their country has been utterly destroyed.
Ahmadinejad can carry on with all the R&P he wants and you can carry on with all the R&P you want to counter his R&P but for all of that the geo-political reality doesn’t change – Iran doesn’t have the means to ‘wipe Israel off the map’, the right-wing Zionists are only using R&P against Iran in order to further their own political interests in relation to their dream of a Greater Israel. They think because the R&P worked against Saddam Hussein in Iraq, who was supporting the Palestinian cause against the Israelis, that it will work again against Iran. The reality is it won’t.
If the US is dumb enough to try and attack Iran, and if they’re dumb enough to believe that the Iraqi people were going to welcome the US and their allies as ‘liberators’ when they invaded Iraq then they might just try it, then the world is going to be in a serious mess. Iran will retaliate.
Reality: Israel must withdraw entirely from all of the territories it occupies and return to behind the 1967 line. It must withdraw all of its settlements which are on real estate that isn’t theirs. They must tear down the wall. They must accept sharing their land with others that they displaced in occupying it.
There will be no peace until this happens. The peoples of the world must understand the reality and make peace happen. The R&P that you espouse will only perpetuate the violence and killing.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

DURING WAR DID ISRAEL BOMB LEBANESE BUSINESSES THAT WERE COMPETING WITH ISRAELI BUSINESSES IN SAME MARKETS?

Evidence is coming to light that shows that this is indeed the case.

During last years war between Israel and the Lebanese people the Israeli Air Force (IAF) were provided with targets that had nothing to do with diminishing the ability of Israel’s stated enemy to strike back at Israel. Many of these targets were small and medium sized Lebanese industrial businesses that were manufacturing products for the global and regional market – a market that Israeli businesses were also competing in.

An Australian-Lebanese businessman that has recently returned from an investigative visit to Lebanon armed with a documentary film unit has evidence that indicates that many of the small and medium sized businesses that were hit by the Israel Air Force in Lebanon were deliberately targeted for reasons that seem to indicate that Israel wished to destroy, not so much the Lebanese industrial sector because it was in some way aiding Hizbollah efforts, but solely because they were a threat to Israeli commercial interests. In virtually all instances where businesses, particularly manufacturing businesses, were destroyed or badly damaged, there was no evidence to suggest that their destruction or damage was because of collateral damage due to them being close to any target that could have been construed as offensive to the Israelis.

A Lebanese cousin of the Australian-Lebanese businessman had, with other family members who had pooled some several million dollars of their resources, built and operated a high-tech business manufacturing innovative medical supplies. The business was remotely located in an olive grove that belonged to one of the family stakeholders. After all the hard work and effort the entire project was totally destroyed in an instant when it was hit by Israeli air force bombs and missiles.

Amnesty International in their initial report of the conflict, published 23 August 2006, noted that some 900 ‘commercial enterprises were hit’.

Since the Israeli’s stated war aims was to retrieve two arrested soldiers and to destroy Hizbollah it seems incongruous that Israel’s air force would need to deliberately target a remotely situated medical supplies manufacturing business that were involved in no activities that could in any way be construed as a threat, directly or indirectly, to the Israelis.

This report will be developed further when the supporting evidence is made available for publication.